Our state is facing a veterinary shortage. What does this mean for Idaho pet owners?

REXBURG (Idaho Capital Sun) — There is a national veterinary shortage, and it has been affecting Idaho severely. According to leaders of local animal shelters and veterinarians, it has led to more expensive costs for treatment, longer waiting times for appointments and an uptick in pet surrenders and unnecessary euthanasia.

According to a study conducted by MARS Veterinary Health, nearly 41,000 additional veterinarians will be needed to meet the needs of veterinary health care by 2030. That shortage has caused the price of veterinary treatment in the U.S. to increase.

“People expect to have some sticker shock when they go to the veterinarian,” said Dr. Jeff Rosenthal, the chief executive officer of the Idaho Humane Society. “They expect it to be expensive. But if they haven’t been to a vet, particularly with a major medical issue, or even a dentistry in the last couple of years, I think what I see is just folks coming through the door and they’ve been to other vet hospitals and are just in a total state of shock, because it’s so far beyond what they ever imagined the cost would be.”

Increased animal care cost has had wide effects

The increase in cost of veterinary treatment is not an isolated event, according to Rosenthal. As Idaho housing costs have dramatically increased in the last five years, the overwhelming financial stress of veterinary treatment has led many pet owners to surrender their companions, he said. This sudden increase in admissions has caused stress for local shelters like the Idaho Humane Society.

“In addition to just general inflation, the cost of veterinary care has also just really skyrocketed in recent years, and so we see a big increase in the number of pets being relinquished to our shelter with medical conditions that people simply cannot afford to take care of,” Rosenthal said. “We end up having to deal with those cases. We try to work with folks, and our ability to provide veterinary care ourselves is helpful because we can often solve their problems and keep that pet in the home. But with fewer veterinarians and more and more people needing help, it’s a big issue for us and our medical center.”

Aside from pets, this shortage has had some serious implications for Idaho’s livestock. While most ranchers and agricultural producers are generally able to find large animal veterinary care, Eric Boehm, the executive director of the Idaho Veterinary Medical Association, said that may change.

“A lot of people are looking at a few years down the line because a lot of the livestock vets are getting near retirement age,” Boehm said.

He said Idaho’s lack of a veterinary school also poses a challenge to Idaho’s veterinary labor shortage. That’s something the Idaho Veterinary Medical Association is trying to address with scholarships that would go to Idaho residents who are attending vet school at some nearby universities that offer animal medicine programs.

“One of the things that we’re trying to do with the IVMA is we’re working towards adopting some scholarships for both Washington State and Utah State to try and encourage students to focus in (agricultural) areas,” Boehm said.

According to Rosenthal, the veterinary shortage has somewhat benefitted the financial situation of many veterinarians. 

“Veterinarians historically were highly educated professionals that were underpaid compared to other professions,” Rosenthal said. “Life as a veterinarian decades ago was pretty brutal in a lot of ways. Just because the financial remuneration didn’t really add up to the amount of investment that we made in our school debt and so forth. So we have that change.” 

Those working in veterinary medicine face challenges in labor shortage

While the financial benefit is a helpful and positive change for many veterinarians, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this shortage has been easy for them.

“For vets it’s also kind of a difficult thing mentally to grapple with, because they’re often also having to say no to a lot of folks that need care,” Rosenthal said. “There’s a lot of what’s called economic euthanasia now going on. So that’s euthanasia for animals that have treatable conditions, but folks just can’t afford it. So, there’s a lot of, I think, (psychological) conflict going on with veterinarians as well. Even though they seem to be prospering on the surface – they’re prospering more than they ever have because salaries have shot up – they’re also just not very comfortable with the overall situation. … We recognize that this is really a problem for animals in this country.”

The lack of veterinarians in Idaho does not stem from a lack of students interested in studying veterinary medicine, said Dr. Matt Dredge, a veterinarian and professor of animal and food science at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg. Dredge said veterinary schools across the country have seen an uptick in applications but unfortunately don’t have enough seats for students. 

“The biggest thing is how competitive it is,” Dredge said. 

Many students are more likely to get into medical school because there are typically more seats than those for veterinary school, he said. Even once a student is able to make it into veterinary school, the cost of that education as well as buying a practice can be overwhelming.

“Part of the issue is that the average debt for a veterinarian is about $140,000, which is the same for a med student,” Boehm said. “But the average salary for a veterinarian versus a physician is about half to 66%. So it takes a lot longer to pay off that debt. If you’ve got that student debt hanging over your head, it’s a little difficult to think about taking on six figure debt to buy a practice.”

With the severity of this shortage leaving clinics understaffed along with the financial stress of pursuing a career in veterinary medicine, practicing veterinarians face unique challenges with burnout, which can lead to more shortages.

“Burnout is the big one. Because, you know, there are people that even though they’ve spent many years, as either a veterinarian or a technician learning their craft, they get to the point where they say ‘I’m leaving the profession as a whole, not just this clinic,’” Boehm said. “There’s a point where veterinarians have to, for self care, take a vacation, and then there’s no one to cover.”

What can be done about Idaho’s veterinary shortage

Pet owners can make the situation easier on themselves and their pet’s veterinarian staff by being patient, kind and understanding, Boehm said. 

He also emphasized the usefulness of pet insurance.

“The difference between human and animal health (is that) the prices can look outrageous, but they’re not,” said Boehm.  “At your doctor’s office, your insurance company is covering quite a bit of it. I have pet insurance on my dog who had to have two knee surgeries and for less than 50 bucks a month, that covers $3,000 out of those surgeries. And so I paid in the range of $700-$800.”

Boehm said that it may not be practical for all pet owners to invest in insurance, but for active pets or pets with chronic health conditions, it can make a world of difference in the cost of procedures. On a larger scale, Boehm said that there are a few changes that can be made to help lessen the effects of the veterinary shortage. With Utah State University now having a veterinary school, there are some things that the Idaho Legislature can do to help mitigate the labor shortage.  

“Idaho pays for 10 (veterinary students’) seats at Washington State every year,” Boehm said. 

“If the Legislature wanted to basically do the same thing (for Utah State) in the next year, that would be a good thing, because then we would know 20 Idaho students are coming out, rather than 10.”